Here at The Bowgie, we’re doing our best to bring Cornwall to you when you can’t come to us – and we thought you’d like to hear a bit about how Bowgie owner Andy Pickles is helping the local community by returning to his roots!

Those of you that know our lovely Andy know that he’s not the kind of man to just sit back and let other people work hard when he feels he can help. So after just one week of The Bowgie being temporarily closed due to Coronavirus, he’s already volunteered to be a tractor driver for our local farmer!

This is actually a return to Andy’s childhood; he spent his early years on a farm called Trevellans, just outside Truro. He helped out his dad on all aspects of farm life before moving into hospitality and eventually buying The Bowgie, Crantock. It might be a little while since he was last in a tractor, but he’s certainly picked the skill straight back up – this week he’s out “ripping” a field just a few miles away from his childhood farm!

Although social distancing and self-isolation measures are keeping many of us further apart than we’re used to, it’s more important than ever that those of us that can help, do help pull together. As a nation, we’ll be relying on our farming community to keep food on our tables more than ever in the coming months – which is why Andy wanted to get out there and help our local farming community.

Most of us will be less than familiar with the process of getting fields ready to plant, grow and harvest crops over the course of the year. The fields have been ploughed, and then they are “ripped” in order to break up compacted soil so that roots can grow. This needs to be done before seeds can be planted – which is what Andy’s helping with.

Being a sprightly 70 years young, Andy isn’t really in a position to drive people around or do errands during the pandemic – but on the tractor he’s socially distanced from others while making a valuable contribution to the local community. In fact, one of the last big social gatherings at The Bowgie was Andy’s 70th birthday, when family and friends in the local community were invited for a celebratory slice of cake and a cuppa.

While Andy’s enjoying being back in the driving seat while the pub remains closed, we look forward to welcoming you one and all back to The Bowgie as soon as we possibly can!